When Life Doesn’t Go Your Way… Remember This ONE Magic Word

Less than one year after we'd moved in, my staff and I were barely working out of the office, but it was still costing me a small fortune every month.

I couldn’t believe something this terrible was actually happening to me.

Or was it…

--- March 2014 ---

“This is it!” I said to my agent.

“This is the office space I want to move into!”

The office space was unlike anything I’d imagined. It was PERFECT!

Brand new, 4,500 square feet, and all of the cubicles, desks, chairs, and other pieces of furniture were already included.

It was in one of those fancy office complexes that was sure to impress anyone.

This isn’t the picture of the exact office building, but it’s close enough to give you an idea as to why I was so excited.

I told my real estate agent to make an offer on the space.

The landlords were asking $7,000/month with a 5-year lease, so I told my agent to offer them $6,500/month.

It was early March of 2014, and I’d been looking for an office space ever since my company launched our new “Done-For-You Sales Team” services in January, for people involved in network marketing businesses.

The idea, in my opinion, was PURE GENIUS.

Am I maybe a little bit biased because it was my idea?

Sure.

But it was still genius if I do say so myself!

The Idea Was Simple...

​Network marketers could pay us a flat fee of just $97 a month, and for that, they’d be able to send traffic to a website we gave them.

On that website, a prospect would be able to fill out a form saying that they were interested in joining a network marketing business.

When a prospect would fill out a form requesting a call back, my sales team would call that prospect and put them into the business (a.k.a downline) of the network marketer, who was paying for our service.

In other words, for about $3/day… a network marketer could pay us to build their business for them!

See, I told you it was genius!

Because I’d been involved in the home based business/internet marketing/network marketing industry for years, I had tons of contacts; so I brought my idea to one of the biggest players I knew.

This guy had a huge downline (i.e. group of people underneath him) in one of the hottest network marketing companies around. And, like me, he thought that my phone-sales center idea would add tons of value to the marketplace!

So we hopped on a conference call with his downline (over 950 people) and told them about my new service.

And guess what…

THEY LOVED IT!

45 minutes later we had over 600 people signed up for my phone-sales service!

You do the math…(or let me do it for you)

600 people x $97 = $58,200

Yup - I'd Just Made Over $58,000 In About 45 Minutes!

​That was on a Monday night, in January 2014 (at about 9PM).

By the time Wednesday rolled around, and other network marketers heard the news, we had well over 900 people who had signed up for our phone-sales services.

Our first month out the gate, my company had brought in just over $100,000!

And the BEST PART...

Most of that money was RESIDUAL INCOME. Meaning that as long as people maintained their membership with my phone-sales service, the money would keep rolling in month after month.

I’d found myself a goose that laid golden eggs… and now, it was time to expand!

That’s why I was looking for office space; so that my employees and I could stop working from our homes and behave/grow like a “real” company (notice the quotes).

I’d looked at close to a dozen office spaces and didn’t find one that really suited what I thought my needs were.

Until I came across this special space in March (about 40 days after my $100,000 January)...

I Just "KNEW" This Space We Meant For Me...

About a week after we made our $6,500 bid, the company who owned the property came back to us and said that they didn’t quite understand my business model and that they’d need a full business plan before they could finish processing my offer.

So, I spent the next three days working on a business plan and sent it over to them.

A week later, their answer came back.

DENIED!

So I said to my agent…“I HAVE to have this office! Withdraw our initial offer of $6,500/month, and offer them the full $7,000/month they’re asking for.”

He did.

And they came back with their answer…“NO.”

But I refused to be denied.

I told my agent to offer them $7,500/month for the space (a full $500/month) more than they were asking.

And once again, their answer was NO.

I was LIVID!

Couldn’t they see that I had a $100,000/month tiger by the tail?

Couldn’t they see that this office space was supposedto be mine?

“FUCK THEM!” (I thought to myself)

How Could This Happen TO Me?

How could God give me a $100,000/month business, show me this great office, and then not let me have it? It just wasn't fair.

About six weeks later later my agent and I settled on a different office space.

The space we finally acquired wasn’t nearly as new (or as nice) as the space I’d fallen in love with. But it was much closer to my house (only 10 minutes away as opposed to 25), and quite a bit less expensive.

This new space was about 2,900 square feet and the cost was about $3,000/month (less than half the price of the other office space). Not to mention the fact that the landlord was willing to do a 3-year lease (as opposed to the 5-year lease I would’ve had to sign at the other place).

I half-begrudgingly (and half-gratefully) moved into my new space in May of 2014 (a full 90+ days after I’d had my $100,000 month).

So, a quick recap...

In January of 2014 I launched a phone-sales service for network marketers, and made $100,000 the very first month, right out the gate…

In March, I found what I thought was the perfect office space (for $7,000/month), but was denied it.

In May of 2014 I finally moved into some office space that was smaller and less expensive than what I hoped for (or thought I deserved).

Soon After I Moved In, My Business Started Going Downhill.

​I won’t get into all of the details, but by September of 2014 (8 months after my $100,000 launch) I could barely afford to keep the lights on.

By February of 2015, it was nearly a ghost town. Less than a year after we’d moved in, my staff and I were barely working out of the office.

By June of 2015, I was paying $3,000/month for an office that no-one was using.

By November of 2015, I was thanking God for allowing me to find someone to subcontract my lease for the final year and a half, so that I wouldn’t be responsible for the payments anymore.

I was sooo grateful to be out of that lease.

But can you imagine what would’ve happened had life actually gone the way I’d wanted?

Can You Imagine Where I'd Be If I'd Actually GOTTEN

What I Asked For?

​By the time I was about 6 months into my lease, I could barely afford the rent.

Can you imagine how bad it would’ve been had I gotten the office I wanted, and my rent was literally twice as much?

I wouldn’t have survived financially.

Heck, the whole reason I was even able to get someone to sublet from me was because there was only a year and a half left on the lease, and the landlord didn’t care what I did as long as the rent was paid. The landlords at the original space I wanted would've never gone for that.

The morning after all of the sub-leasing paperwork was completed, and the company that would be taking over the payments had the keys to the office in hand, I woke up light as a feather. As if a $3,000/month weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

And as my mind relived the journey I’d been on, and how things would be infinitely worse had life gone the way I wanted, it hit me...

As if a little voice had whispered an epiphany in my ear.

An epiphany that made me completely reconsider everything I thought about life, circumstances, and happiness.

The Voice Whispered to Me:

“When life doesn't go your way, or gets difficult... more often than not, things aren't happening TO you… they’re happening FOR you!”

Read that statement at least two to three more times. It’s the “SEXY” - i.e. the essence - of this article, and it’s one of the “master keys” to unlocking peace and happiness in any area of your life.

Like MAGIC... That Simple Shift Of ONE WORD Completely

Changed Everything For Me.

In an instant...I realized that when God, the Universe, or whoever you want to call it, was not letting me have that $7,000/month office...

It wasn’t being done TO me… it was being done FOR me!

Taking out the word “to” and replacing it with “for” made me see my life as if I was looking through glasses that gave me super-insight.

​(And just in case it hasn't hit you yet..."FOR" is the "one magic word".)

All of the sudden, my mind started searching for situations where life didn't give me what I wanted - only to give me something better (even if I couldn't see it at the time).

In other words, my mind started searching for places where my new magic word (“for”) held true without me even realizing it...

I thought about time I was stood up by this girl at a local bar, only to have that be the night I would meet an amazing woman that I would end up dating for over a year and remain great friends with to this day.

I thought about the time when some scam artists infiltrated one of my businesses and ended up making me lose about $8,000. As it turns out, the changes I had to make in my business, because of these scammers ended up yielding me about $2,700/ month in profits over the next 4 years! It was like trading $8,000 for over $129,000!

I thought about back in high school when I sang in what you’d call the “regular choir”; I’d tried out for the advanced Show Choir only to fail miserably. I thought life wasn’t going my way. I almost quit the choir altogether . But the next year, while “stuck” in the regular choir, I thought I didn’t want to be in, I met the guy who would become my best friend. We’d end up going to college together (to a school I’d have never even considered had we not been friends).

The four years at Georgia Southern University (where I went to college) and the friendships I made that still shape my life to this day, would’ve NEVER happened had I gotten what I wanted and made it into the advanced Show Choir the first time I tried out.

“Life can only be understood looking backwards; but it must be lived forwards. "

~Soren Kierkegaard

Instance after instance, I came to realize that whenever I thought life wasn’t going my way, it actually WAS going my way. It was just doing so in a way I couldn’t understand at the time.

I even started looking at the lives of my friends to see if this same principle held true.

I thought about a female friend of mine who, only a few years earlier, went through a divorce because her husband cheated on her.

Did she deserve that?

No.

Did she get what she wanted (i.e. a fruitful and faithful marriage with her husband)?

No.

What she got was something 100X better!

The guy she met after her divorce was exactly who she was supposed to be with.

They’re happily married to this day and I couldn’t be happier for her!

But you see…

With regard to her cheating husband, her divorce, and all the rest of that “negative” stuff…

None of it was happening TO her… it was all happening FOR her!

It was happening so that she could get a bigger blessing.

I’m not overly religious, but when the bible says “I will take your ashes and turn them into beauty”…

I now understand what those words mean.

So, As I Close Out This Blog Post About The Magic Word To Remember When Life Doesn't Go Your Way...

I have 2 questions I’d like for you to ponder as you go about your day…

Question #1:How many times in your life have you thought something was happening TO you, only to realize later that it was happening FOR you?

And

Question #2: What if the next time life doesn’t go your way (or you don’t get what you THINK you want) you were to apply this idea that it’s happening FOR you instead of TO you?

Try doing this the next time life gives you what you THINK are lemons.

Choose to believe that it’s happening FOR you (instead of TO you), and see how excited you get about the possibility of your ashes being turned into beauty.

Thanks for allowing me to share my heart with you.

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Devon Brown (“Duh-Von” not “Dev-in”) is an internet entrepreneur, speaker, author, MC, and former hip-hop dancer whose content has helped countless people achieve more success in their lives. Once described as a sort-of ‘MC Hammer meets Tony Robbins’; his style is 50% education, 50% entertainment, and 100% must-experience. Be sure to connect with Devon on YouTube at DevonBrown.TV

The mission of DevonBrown.com is to help success-minded people, like you, get more out of life. We focus on edutaining (educational + entertaining) solutions for unlocking success, uncovering the endless possibilities within yourself, and creating your life on your terms.